Okay, so I have this story I want to do, set in space where there are all sorts of technology that Earth doesn't have yet. But there is a problem I want to come up with where a couple of my characters get what I call "spliced." In this scenario, I want my character to have undergone a scientific experiment in which her DNA is spliced, or something similar, with an animal's DNA. Now I don't want this to change her outward appearance as much as I want it to change her perception of the world around her, her senses. I also want her eyes to shift colors depending on if the animal gene is more forward.
Now I would like for her to express some of the animal's instincts, such as liking to be pet if it's a cat, or say "going into heat" or howling for her "pack." The only problem is how to present to experiment, the process and the change to the reader without confusing them, but also making the process seem possible. If anyone could throw me some ideas, that would be brilliant. Thanks.
If you're looking for ways to explain how she became this way, there's already talks, mostly theoretical from what I can see, in some science communities about what I'll refer to as genetic manipulation. Basically it's making changes to a baby's DNA before it's even born, ranging from guaranteeing (x color) eyes to removing some genetic disorders. Maybe your character was an experiment in whether or not that would work trans-species? Or whether it could work in teens/adults? Maybe they figured 'Science is already taking genes from phosphorescent jellyfish and making glow in the dark trees, so why not take it a step further?'
Also, if the experiment is done before she's born, make the animal traits seem like just slightly heightened versions of normal human things (increased appetite, really good sight/hearing/etc.) until puberty. If she's a teen/adult, have them take form very gradually. Give her side effects like migraines and dizzy spells or even narcolepsy until her body gets used to it. Also, maybe making it a regular thing she has to inject (like Hormone Replacement Therapy in transgender individuals) would make it seem more 'realistic' to readers? Just some ideas.
I hope I read your question right… Either way, best of luck and I hope this helps!
Aether, there's been significant advances in the field you're talking about. There's a thing called CRISPR (pronounced crisper) that basically allows you to remove a specific section of the DNA strand and replace it with something else. A possible application for this (which is kind of related to what Angela's question was) is growing human hearts inside of pigs. Pigs and humans have a very similar organ structure, and with CRISPR, the DNA sequence that grows a pig heart in a pig embryo can be replaced with the DNA sequence that leads to a human heart. There's a really long wait list for heart transplants, and if human hearts could be grown and harvested, a lot of lives would be saved. (But growing human hearts for transplant from pigs isn't possible at this point, because it's possible that the human body will reject the new heart. More testing and refining needs to be done.)
I'm sure this technology could develop to the point that you want it to, Angela. In the future, it might be possible to do gene editing in adults, or maybe like what you were talking about, human senses could be replaced with human senses. The possibilities are endless.
This website is really informative if you want to know more:
https://www.livescience.com/58790-crispr-explained.html
okay hi I know this was started like 4 months ago but it's near the top of the sci-fi so here's my spiel.
Splicing genes, and getting them to express phenotypes (physical traits) in an adult organism is currently nearly impossible. You have to get the DNA sequence that codes for the proteins/behaviors into every cell that needs it. So it's much easier to do it when the organism is an zygote/embryo.
To get her to not so much display animal appearance things, you just don't use genes that control that. (the most far fetched thing about your thing is having the eyes change when she uses her traits, but hey, this is sci-fi. This is where the fiction comes in.)
Of course, if your thing is set far in the future, then these probably aren't much of a problem.
If you haven't already figured it out, I would make a scene where a doctor/scientist explain to the character (or her parents, if the splicing happens in the womb) the effects/risks/process
This is medieval times I'm writing, but I want to make the main characters of act 2 pureblooded youkai, but both of their parents are only half youkai. What I got is that whatever the dominant gene is, the gene gets passed down to the offspring, making them either pureblooded or halfblooded.
This is medieval times I'm writing, but I want to make the main characters of act 2 pureblooded youkai, but both of their parents are only half youkai. What I got is that whatever the dominant gene is, the gene gets passed down to the offspring, making them either pureblooded or halfblooded.
hmmmm I would say no
It's a little more complex
give me a few minutes to sketch out some punnet squares (they show heritage/traits)
I know how it works, I just want to make the main characters pure youkai, but the parent's dads being humans is essential to the plot.
okay or not I can't get them to upload to Notebook
so here I go
so situation one (which is not v biologically accurate) is that you have 1 gene that controls whether a being is human or youkai (or half/half). Let's call youkai the dominant gene, so let's use H. and human is recessive, so let's use h. (capitals matter here)
Each parent is half/half, so their genotype is Hh.
in a punnet square, you have the parental genotypes on the top and side, and each box in the grid is a possibility for the child
this is a google one I found with A instead of H, but same sentiment
So, if one box (in this case, top left) is double-dominant (homozygous dominant), HH, then there is a 25% chance that any child of this couple will be full Youkai.
Two boxes (top right and bottom left) are mixed (we call that heterozygous), there is a 50% chance that the child will be half Youkai half human
And the last box is double recessive (homozygous recessive), so there's a 25% chance the child will be only human
Note that each child is an independent event… if the couple has two kids, and the first is double-dominant, that doesn't take the option out for the next kid
Option 2 makes more sense biologically: think of it this way
If two people of one nationality have a kid… let's say they're both French, their kid is full french, right?
If two ppl are half French, and let's say… half American, then their kids are half French, half American as well (bc they get half their heritage from each parent- so their mom's half passes down two quarters, one French quarter and one American, and their dad does the same)
Logically, the kids of a couple of two half-Youkais would also be half Youkai, if Youkai is a nationality/ "race" (race in the non biological sense… in the biological sense, race is a species. Let's do a mini option to explain that)
I'm gonna post what I have so far, but keep explaining that mini option in another post, plus do a conclusion
So, let's talk about biological races/species.
I don't really know what a Youkai is.
But here's the way I see it. They're either another species of human, or they're a species similar to humans
- Another species of human
Assuming they have the same number of chromosomes, and they can reproduce with humans, they could theoretically produce fertile offspring (which, most logically, would follow option 2 from the previous post when they had their own kids).
so you have
generation 1: youkai + human = half/half
gen 2: half/half + half/half = half/half (but here's a question… if the kids of gen 2 (gen 3) are half and half, do they still have the same strength of qualities/powers as their parents? bc they're later on, and the youkai would prob get diluted by human)
- Actually doesn't even apply bc you have kids of the 2nd gen. But if they had diff chromosome numbers, their kids would prob be infertile (think about a mule- a sterile child of a horse and a donkey… the parents have diff chromosome numbers so the child couldn't reproduce bc biology)
so yeah
also, I assumed Youkai as dominant for the whole thing, but if human-ness is dominant, then just switch it around where I talk about that.
BUT IN CONCLUSION:
Biologically, it does not make sense for your Act 2 characters to be full Youkai when their parents are only half-Youkai (again, two half-French ppl who have a kid don't make a fully French kid). Even if you chose the biologically inaccurate option (which is inaccurate bc there's gonna be a full set of genes controlling the Youkai genotype/phenotype set), there's still only a 25% chance that their kids would be full Youkai.
Does this all make sense? Ask me if you have any more questions, I'm here to help
I know everything is inaccurate, but come on, where's all the fun in perfect logic? Also, youkai are demons (here, they're cat demons) that use the forms of humans to try and live among them.
Is there anyway that the genes can be affected after the baby is born?
Not really? Because every gene in the body would need to be altered, and that's not really feasible, not with our current tech, and it wouldn't happen naturally in every cell
(Out of curiosity, what is epigenetics? I've heard someone referring to it as someone's 'genes changing during their lifetime' but that's both vague and confusing so…)
Epigenetics (as I just learned from a Google search lol) is the study of the changes of phenotypes, so Gene expression in an organism. So not changes in the genome itself. Just in expression.
Epigenetics is when someone's genes change due to outside influences. I know that sounds weird, but bare with me.
Basically, whenever you get cancer that wasn't from your parents, that can be caused by epigenetics. Skin cancer from a sunburn, lung cancer from smoking, all kinds of cancer from radiation, the genes are mutated from an outside source.
This isn't like natural selection, where an animal that was mutated from birth and had a better chance of survival because that mutation turned out to be helpful. I'm no expert, and it's been a few months since my Genetics and Bioethics class, but that is an extremely basic overview of epigenetics.
The more you know!
Epigenetics is when someone's genes change due to outside influences. I know that sounds weird, but bare with me.
Basically, whenever you get cancer that wasn't from your parents, that can be caused by epigenetics. Skin cancer from a sunburn, lung cancer from smoking, all kinds of cancer from radiation, the genes are mutated from an outside source.
This isn't like natural selection, where an animal that was mutated from birth and had a better chance of survival because that mutation turned out to be helpful. I'm no expert, and it's been a few months since my Genetics and Bioethics class, but that is an extremely basic overview of epigenetics.
The more you know!
Are there any websites that you know of that could go into more depth?
https://www.whatisepigenetics.com/fundamentals/
I did some more reading on this site after I responded the first time? It has both basics and some more in depth stuff? It might help?
have you considered eugenics? maybe your character was bred, or multiple characters, including parents, were bred leading up to this person, who is the perfect specimen of what the breeders wanted
